Like a Mother's Hands
by Shini-Kender
Summary: Isane wants to do something special for Kiyone's birthday. Unohana helps.


Sewing cloth wasn't entirely like sewing sutures and as Isane yelped, lifting a bloodied finger to her lips to lick off a dot of blood, she was realizing to what extent that was true.

She stared blankly down at the rumpled bits of cloth, neatly marked at some of the edges with blue chalk. She had been so proud of how neatly she had cut the fabric, too. It was just the thread didn't seem to go where she wanted and the needle seemed to have developed something of a taste for her skin.

Isane sucked on her finger, letting out another sigh. She wasn't going to finish it on time at this rate. In fact, she was fairly sure wasn't going to finish it at all.

"Oh, no..." she murmured, half to herself, before jumping as a hand settled on her shoulder.

"Troubles, Isane?"

"Aaah! Taichou, I'm so- sorry. Was my light keeping you up?" Isane quickly crumpled her work in embarrassment. Keeping Unohana-taichou up would be inexcusable. She might be able to sleep in tomorrow, but Unohana-taichou would diligently be up and about taking care of the division as usual. To think that she might have bothered the older woman was distressing, indeed.

"Shh, I was just checking in on a few patients," Unohana soothed, settling on the bed by her vice captain and reaching around her to smooth out the white fabric. "Did you need some help?"

Isane's fingers curled on the fabric as she studied her hands. Compared to Unohana-taichou's smaller ones, they seemed so large and unwieldy, just like everything else about herself. She worked her teeth slowly against her lip to assuage her nerves.

Unohana slowly worked Isane's hands free from the fabric, lifting it up to look it over. It was stiff and the stitching more complicated than the average sewing project. "Kiyone's birthday?"

Isane nodded, numbly, watching as Unohana looked over her handiwork. In a way, her captain was a lot like her mother, like the entire division's mother, really.

Isane remembered her mother's hands were just the same. Unohana handled the white cuffs with the same gentleness her mother had held Kiyone the first time Isane had seen her. Isane had marveled at the smaller girl in her mother's arms. Babies were a rarity in the Soul Society, since most souls came into their world by means of konsou from the living world.

Kiyone was the first baby Isane had ever seen. She remembered her sister's scrunched eyes, surveying the world like a hermit trapped inside of a red and pink skinned shell. Isane remembered the way Kiyone's hands were so small compared to hers, the way Kiyone's tiny fingers tightened around her own.

She remembered thinking how sweet and quiet Kiyone was and of all the fun they could have together once Kiyone could walk and speak.

Those two first impressions were only half right. Because, just as soon as Isane had finished that thought, her brand new baby sister let out an ear-piercing wail. After that and the many sleepless nights in the Kotetsu household afterwards, Isane had never thought of Kiyone as quite quiet again.

Kiyone was like a burst of sunshine, energy streaming about her. There was no way you couldn't tell when she was in a room. In fact, you could usually tell where she was in the house no matter where you were.

Isane was the moon to Kiyone's sun. Hesitant and shy, she was the one that caught Kiyone's messes before they became impossible to fix. She was the one that was always offering rushed apologies to their neighbors and parents.

It was only natural that the day she left for the shinigami academy, as her parents expected of her, that she'd worry.

The first few weeks had been a mess of worry. Isane worried about her schedule. She worried about her classes and her roommates. She worried about her classmates, her teachers, and her grades. But, most of all, she worried about Kiyone. Her sister had always been there at her side to the point where at times, Isane thought of her as part of herself.

When the first weekend came, Isane had hurried home, taking only what she really needed to be able to travel faster, even if she fretted she'd leave behind something she really needed. However, seven days of worry had proven to be for nothing. Kiyone was just as bright as she had always been.

In fact, Isane had never seen Kiyone get upset. Tears came quick when Isane was alone and driven to her wits end. But, Kiyone didn't get upset. Kiyone got angry. And Isane was no stranger to her anger. Just as in the Kotetsu household, once Kiyone had entered the academy herself, Isane had no trouble telling exactly where she was in the dorms.

Kiyone had apparently started a rivalry with Kotsubaki Sentarou, a student in Isane's year, and was at constant war with him. Isane rarely saw her sister without the constant theme of Sentarou running through it. During lunch, Kiyone would duck behind her older sister, peeking out every once in a while to see just where he was in the cafeteria, assured that he was plotting to sabotage her in some way, despite Isane's reassurances that surely the older boy wasn't out to get her.

Kiyone would just laugh and slap a hand on Isane's shoulder, shaking her head. "You don't know the gravity of the situation, big sister," she'd nod, in all seriousness and then duck once more to hide behind her ramen bowl as the first shouts of Sentarou running into the trap Kiyone had set for him that day echoed across the dining hall.

In a way, being assigned to separate divisions came as an odd blessing for Isane. Under Unohana's gentle guidance, Isane, like so many others in the division, learned to find her own strength. She might have been the moon that Kiyone's sun shone through, but Unohana taught her that some of that brightness Isane reflected was that of her own.

Unohana leaned closer to press a gentle kiss on Isane's cheek, breaking her from her train of thoughts, laughing softly when Isane jumped. "Drifting off?"

"I- I'm so sorry, Unohana-taichou," Isane murmured, blushing and bowing her head a bit.

Unohana shook her head, reaching out to rub Isane's back in slow gentle circles, "Shh, now tell me what problems you're having with this, Isane."

Isane nodded and reached out to take the fabric from Unohana's hands and began. 


End file.
